Hello and welcome to my reading web log! This blog is my reading journey. Here you can find my book reviews, anything related to books, and even some of my original writing. Keep going down for posts and don't forget to look around the blog. Thank you! (this blog is best viewed in desktop mode/web version)
I did not finish this book because I gave it to my Mom, but it just gathered dust. I tried to read it, but I didn’t want to start a book that was the third book in a series. This is a book I won from the Maricopa Summer Reading Program.
“My head is spinning, thoughts knocking into one another, but I swallow back the tears. I clench my fists and try not to scream and I tuck my friends in my heart and revenge I think has never looked so sweet" (Mafi Ignite Me 11).
I read this book because Robert Sheehan was in the movie for it.
"In her bedroom on the top floor Katherine awoke and lay watching the sunbeams filter through the tortoiseshell shutters on her window" (Reeve 41 Mortal Engines).
March 28, 2017
“But one good thing had come out of it: The people of Peripatetiapolis were quite glad to accept Tom's London money. On an impulse he bought a red silk shawl to replace the scarf that Hester had lost on that long-ago night when he'd chased her through the Gut.
‘For me?' she said incredulously when he gave it to her. She couldn't remember anyone ever giving her a gift before. She had not spoken to him much since they'd left the Black Island, ashamed of her outburst the night before, but now she said, ‘Thank you. And I suppose I should thank you for saving my life too. Though I don't know why you keep bothering'" (Reeve Mortal Engines 263).
I got this book from the free book section after school when I was in high school.
May 8, 2017 - June 4, 2017
“‘We were so sorry to hear about your father,' he said, but the way his face was, it was hard to tell if he really meant that. ... Anyway, how could he really be sorry when people died? It was how he made his money" (Hobbs 21 Sonny's War).
“I wondered if fourteen-year-olds ever got their heart attacked" (Hobbs 76 Sonny's War).
Should it be “got heart attacks"?
“Gives you the willies, believe you me" (Hobbs 77 Sonny's War).
“believe you me" sounds like a funny phrase
“By the last debate, both teams were getting sloppy. We'd used up all our good points and were going for scraps” (Hobbs 78 Sonny's War).
This reminds me of myself when I run out of ideas.
“It was like my butt weighed four hundred pounds" (Hobbs 79 Sonny's War).
I thought this sentence was funny. I wonder why Cory is self conscious about her rear end. Lol ya
“Could a person grow up a piece at a time?" (Hobbs 114 Sonny's War).
“A yellow dog came running up to me, his tail wagging. It felt good to let him lick my face, but he did it to everybody who let him. A love dog, Dad would have said. Not like Feckless, who only really loved one person: Dad" (Hobbs 121 Sonny's War).
This quote reminds me of baby Twenty because he loves Mom the most.
"Sometimes I just felt like the last person in the room after the lights got turned off. Elaine was moving to Vermont. ... I would have to start all over with friends in the fall. Except for Lisa. She was still a friend. She was a real good friend whenever she and Jimbo broke up, which was about once a month for three days. I had Lisa like I had my period, except she was of course more fun" (Hobbs 141 Sonny's War).
"Asking for signatures wasn't any different than trick-or-treat. Being popular was a lot like wearing a costume. ... 'Thanks,' wrote Burt. His handwriting was so crimped I could hardly read what was underneath his name. It looked like 'You're pouty' or 'You're pushy.' Finally, I showed it to Mom. 'He says you're pretty,' she said. 'Isn't that sweet?'" (Hobbs 142 Sonny's War).
“If you went through life wearing somebody else's glasses, she said, you were bound to get a ‘distorted view of things''' (Hobbs 148 Sonny's War).
I think this is a metaphor for something. Probably that if you shouldn't let other people rule over your life, or something like that...
“At last, he reached down and patted her head without looking, missing all that love" (Hobbs 179 Sonny's War).
Feckless their female dog sounds like a cute little Chihuahua.
“I heard her slippered feet cross the floor” (Hobbs 181 Sonny's War).
I like the author's word choice in this sentence.
“Conversation started up around me like a seized-up engine” (Hobbs 182 Sonny's War).
This sentence gives a nice visual of what the restaurant sounds like to Cory. I love it!
“‘No, oh no! He's a nice guy. Anyway, Mom says he doesn't ring her bells'" (Hobbs 195 Sonny's War).
I thought this was a funny phrase. LOL
“Around us, a sea of orange trees, their leaves whispering night secrets” (Hobbs 197 Sonny's War).
“Headlights pierced the dark" (Hobbs 198 Sonny's War).
“The night filled with the thrum of pounding pistons, both engines pushed to the screaming edge.
...
All the worst things in life happen in slow motion. Why this is, I will probably never know. The best things flash by like hummingbirds too fast to catch, the worst things stretch themselves out like bad company and hang around, letting you see every piece of everything, so you can remember for the rest of your life exactly how it was.
...
...everything alive with light, moonlight, headlights...
...
...gently smiling as if he'd remembered some sweet, nice thing. A song maybe, or a kiss" (Hobbs 199 Sonny's War).
“What were we doing here? No way to answer. I felt the way you feel before sleep, that swimming you do in your mind, pieces of dreams gathering, almost peaceful. I was tired like never before in my life, and guilty for wanting to sleep, to get away" (Hobbs 201 Sonny's War).
“...the moon a pinched face.
...
...as if he lost all feeling" (Hobbs 202-203 Sonny's War).
“Like an empty summer sky" (Hobbs 206 Sonny's War).
“Then, because Jason looked so serious, he got serious, too, his eyebrows drawing together over those dark, troubled eyes” (Hobbs 207 Sonny's War).
“I jumped up and ran to the window. The first rays of morning light were creeping up over the mountains" (Hobbs 214 Sonny's War).
“It could have been the sun, the golden light that seemed to follow him as he strode away, his hands clutching the straps of his pack. It could have been the sun, but I think it was Dad" (Hobbs 215 Sonny's War).
Ave atque Vale by Gaius Valerius Catullus (March 5, 2016)
Multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad īnferiās, ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem. Quandoquidem fōrtūna mihi tētē abstulit ipsum. Heu miser indignē frāter adēmpte mihi, nunc tamen interea haec, prīscō quae mōre parentum trādita sunt trīstī mūnere ad īnferiās, accipe frāternō multum mānantia flētū, atque in perpetuum, frāter, avē atque valē.
Through many Countries and over many seas I have come, Brother, to thes melancholy rites, to show this final honor to the dead, and speak (to what purpose?) To your silent ashes, since now fate takes you, in your home, from me. Oh, Brother, ripped away from me so cruelly, now at least take thes last offerings, blessed by the tradition of our parents, gifts to the dead. Accept, by custom, what a brother's tears drown, and, for eternity, Brother, 'Hail and Farewell'.
Carpe diem (March 7, 2016) Used to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future.
Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan, Maureen Johnson, & Robin Wasserman-Notes & Highlights
I got this with a gift card from Changing Hands bookstore or from Barnes and Noble.
I finished reading this book for the second time on Sunday, August 28, 2022 at 5:29 p.m. My last reading session was 41 minutes. I loved it! There were a lot of great moments.
“Being too cool for school was Jace’s thing. Simon supposed he must have understood and been fond of it, once” (11).
lol
“Simon leaned down and hugged Clary, even though it made his chest hurt more. The way she felt and smelled was both strange and familiar, conflicting messages running through his brain and his body. He tried not to hug her too hard, even though she was kind of hugging him too hard. In fact, she was pretty much crushing his rib cage. He didn’t mind, though.
When he let go of Clary, he turned and hugged Jace. Clary watched, tears running down her face.
‘Oof,’ said Jace, sounding extremely startled, but he patted Simon quickly on the back.
Simon supposed they usually fist-bumped or something. He did not know the warrior way of being bros: Eric was a big hugger. He decided it would probably be good for Jace, and ruffled his hair a little for emphasis before stepping away” (14).
:)
(I screenshotted these from OverDrive when I borrowed the Ebook from the library in April 2016 when I had my Samsung phone).
“Julie and Jon were both much more friendly over dinner than they had been for the last few days. Simon told them about killing the demon, what he remembered, and Jon offered to teach him some swordplay tricks.
‘I would really love to hear more about your adventures,’ said Julie. ‘Whatever you can remember. Especially if they involve Jace Herondale. Do you know how he got that sexy scar on his throat?’
‘Ah,’ said Simon. ‘Actually . . . yes. Actually . . . that was me.’ Everybody stared at him.
‘I might have bitten him. A tiny bit. It was more like a nibble, really.’
‘Was he delicious?’ asked Julie, after a thoughtful pause. ‘He looks like he would be delicious.’
‘Um,’ said Simon. ‘He’s not a juice box.’
Beatriz nodded earnestly. Both the girls seemed very interested in this discussion. Too interested. Their eyes were glazed.
‘Did you maybe climb on top of him slowly and then lower your head to his tender, pulsing throat?’ Beatriz said. ‘Could you feel the heat radiating off his body and into yours?’
‘Did you lick his throat before you bit him?’ Julie asked. ‘Oh, and did you get a chance to feel his biceps?’ She shrugged. ‘I’m just curious about, you know, vampire techniques.’
‘I imagine Simon was both gentle and commanding during his special moment with Jace,’ said Beatriz dreamily. ‘I mean, it was special, wasn’t it?’
‘No!’ said Simon. ‘I can’t stress that enough. I’ve bitten several Shadowhunters. I bit Isabelle Lightwood and Alec Lightwood; biting Jace was not a tender and unique moment!’
‘You bit Isabelle and Alec Lightwood?!’ asked Julie, who was starting to sound freaked-out. ‘What did the Lightwoods ever do to you?’
‘Wow,’ said George. ‘I imagined the demon realms were fearsome and terrifying, but seems like it was pretty much nonstop nom nom nom.’
‘That is not how it was!’ Simon said” (44-45).
“At dinner the next day, it was soup again. It had been soup for every meal for many days now. Simon did not remember a life before soup, and he despaired of ever achieving a life after soup” (47).
“‘We are all what our pasts have made us,’ Catarina said. ‘The accumulation of thousands of daily choices. We can change ourselves, but never erase what we’ve been.’ She held up a finger to silence him, as if she knew he was about to argue. ‘Forgetting those choices doesn’t unmake them, Daylighter. You’d do well to remember that’” (111).
“‘You say that like it’s so easy to know what it is,’ Simon said. ‘To be so sure of yourself, that you’re right, no matter what the Law says.’
‘It’s not easy,’ Catarina corrected him. ‘It’s what it means to be alive. Remember what I said, Simon. Every decision you make, makes you. Never let other people choose who you’re going to be’” (116).
“Simon opened the door and was not surprised to find Jace standing outside of it.
‘Here,’ Simon said, handing him the letter.
‘Took you long enough,’ Jace said.
‘Now we’re even,’ said Simon. ‘Go party in the Herondale house with your weird family.’
‘I plan to,’ said Jace, and smiled a sudden, strangely endearing smile” (180).
lol
“‘You would never explain,’ Jace said with a shrug. ‘It was the big mystery about you. As I said, good night, Wiggles. I’ll take care of this’” (181).
Lol That was funny! XD
“It was always the tiniest moments that came back to James in the middle of the night and mortified him the very most, like it was always the almost invisible cuts that kept stinging” (193).
“As long as Simon didn’t think about the past, the past couldn’t hurt him. But, increasingly, he couldn’t help himself. There was too much pleasure in the pain” (264).
“George slipped an arm around both of them, grinning maniacally and humming ‘Can You Feel the Love Tonight?’” (266).
I put that song in “The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare” Spotify playlist along with a Sex Pistols song because it was mentioned that Stephen Herondale (Jace Herondale’s father) had a poster of them in his London room.
“Better to tune out than to doubt” (271).
“It was, of course, Robert’s greatest, most secret fear—but to hear it tossed off so casually like this defused it of all its power” (298).
“Every time he drew a rune on himself, he had to hold his breath, force his fingers not to tremble. He always hesitated. In class, it was barely noticeable. In battle, it could be the split-second difference between life and death, and Robert knew it. Which made him hesitate even more, at everything. He was strong, smart, talented; he was a Lightwood. He should have been among the best. But he couldn’t let himself go and act on instinct. He couldn’t stop his mind from racing toward potential consequences. He couldn’t stop being afraid—and he knew, eventually, it would be the end of him.
‘I can help you,’ Valentine said then. ‘I can teach you what to do with the fear.’ As if it were as simple as that—and under Valentine’s careful instruction, it was” (321).
“Ironic that it was his own cowardice that had made his worst fears come true” (325).
“‘It’s only as hard as you make it,’ he said gently. ‘It’s as easy as you let it be’” (325).
“‘You know, I’m not the person I used to be either,’ Clary had said to him one day, as they nursed their fourth coffee at Java Jones. Simon was doing his best to turn his blood into caffeine, in preparation for September. The Academy was a coffee-free zone. ‘Sometimes, that old Clary feels just as far away from me as the old Simon must from you’” (352).
Lol OMG! 4 coffees?! Me! Lol jk :P ☕️☕️☕️☕️
“‘No, thanks, I’m fine—’ Simon stopped as her last word registered with him. ‘Did you say coffee?’
Half a week into the new school year, Simon was already in serious caffeine withdrawal. Before he could tell her yes, please, a bucketful, Helen had already placed a steaming mug in his hands. ‘I thought so,’ she said.
Simon swallowed greedily, caffeine buzzing through his system. He didn’t know how anyone was supposed to be human—much less, in the Shadowhunter case, superhuman—without a daily dose. ‘Where did you get this?’
‘Magnus magicked me up a nonelectric coffeemaker,’ Helen said, grinning. ‘Kind of a parting gift before we left for Wrangel Island. Now I can’t live without it’” (371).
lol ☕️
“‘Nobody likes a Gloomy Gus,’ George scolded him. ‘Nobody likes a Sullen Si. Nobody is here for a Moody Mildred. No one fancies—’” (408).
lol
“So much had changed, and Simon had changed too. But in the end, he had not lost what was most precious to him. He had been given back the name of his heart.
Isabelle and Clary looked back at him, walking so close that Isabelle’s waterfall of raven hair mingled with Clary’s fiery sunset of curls. Simon smiled and knew how lucky he was, lucky compared to Mark Blackthorn, who was locked away from what he loved best, lucky compared to a billion other people who did not know what it was they loved best of all.
‘Are you coming, Simon?’ Isabelle called out.
‘Yes,’ Simon called back. ‘I’m coming.’
He was lucky to know them, and lucky to know what they were to him, what he was to them: beloved, remembered, and not lost.
♥️
“‘Pizza,’ he said. ‘Oh my God. They stir-fried pizza tonight. It was the worst. Maybe coffee. Maybe there’s time to get to Forbidden Planet? I just . . .’” (473).
There is such a real place in New York! “Specialist chain selling cult sci-fi books, comics and collectibles, plus action figures and toys.”
“Jem smiled at this, the sadness in his eyes receding.
‘Parabatai,’ Clary said again.
And in that moment, something settled over Simon. Something like a blanket on a cold day. Something completely reassuring.
‘Parabatai,’ he said.
A long moment settled between them, and in that moment, all was decided. There was no need to discuss it. You do not need to ask if your heart should beat, or if you should breathe. He and Clary were parabatai. All of Simon’s anger was gone. Now he knew. He had Clary, and she would have him. Forever. Their souls knit” (495).
<3
(Born to Endless Night p. 515)
“‘Elliott performed a dance called the Dance of the Twenty-Eight Veils in Times Square. It is on YouTube. Many commenters described it as the most boring erotic dance ever performed in the history of the world.
…
Magnus noticed Maryse and Robert, who did not have the best relationship and hardly ever spoke to each other, having a brief whispered consultation about what YouTube might be” (540-541).
lol I wonder what that dance is. Also, lol that’s so funny that Mayrse and Robert don’t know what YouTube is! XD
Clary sidled over to the doorway and grinned up at him, a thousand gallons of trouble in a pint-size body. ‘Hi’” (548).
I love it! 💙 I think that this was a perfect way to describe Clary! XD
“‘I like Clary,’ he said simply. ‘She always tries to do what's right, and she never lets anyone else tell her what right is. She reminds my parabatai that he wants to live. Occasionally I wish she'd take fewer mad risks, but if I hated reckless crazy-brave people, I'd hate…’
‘Let me guess,’ said Simon. ‘His name rhymes with Face Herringfail.’
Alec laughed and Simon mentally congratulated himself” (572).
“I wish I could have your bright outlook on life, but unfortunately I cannot help looking around at the world and noticing that we are surrounded by idiots” (580).
“‘There's a scientific phenomenon to describe something that happens when an object is in motion. You think you know exactly what path it will take and where it will end up. Then suddenly, for no reason you can see...the arc changes. It goes somewhere you would never have expected.’
Magnus snapped his fingers, and the coin zigzagged in the air and returned to them as Simon stared, feeling like he was seeing magic for the first time. He dropped the coin in Simon's hand and smiled, a blazing rebel's smile, his eyes as gold as newly discovered treasure.
‘It's called the Magnus effect,’ he said” (590).
“He went and stood in the kitchen doorway, cradling Max in his arms, so he could watch the party. Three years ago, he would not have thought any of this was possible. There were so many people he felt connected to, in this one room. So much had changed, and there was so much potential for change. It was terrifying, to think of all that might be lost, and exhilarating to think of all he had gained.
He looked to Alec, who was standing between his parents, his stance confident and relaxed, his mouth curved in a smile at something one of them had said.
‘Maybe one day it will be just you and me, my little blueberry,’ Magnus said conversationally. ‘But not for a long, long time. We’ll take care of him, you and I. Won’t we?’
Max Lightwood made a happy burbling sound that Magnus took as agreement.
This warm, bright room was no bad starting place for his child’s path to knowing there was more to life than many people ever learned, that there was limitless love to be found, and time to discover it. Magnus had to trust that for himself, for his son, for his beloved, for all of the shining, fading mortals and enduring, struggling immortals that he knew, there would be time enough.
He put the bottle down to one side and pressed his lips to the fuzzy curls covering his son’s head. He heard Max make a small murmuring sound in his ear. ‘Don’t worry,’ Magnus murmured back. ‘We’re all in this together’” (600-601).
I would be a liar if I said that I didn’t tear up reading this scene. October 18, 2016 (from Google Keep)
“‘RIP, Jon Cartwright the Thirty-Fourth,’ George said solemnly.
They named all their rats Jon Cartwright—a fact that drove the original Jon Cartwright nuts. Simon smiled at the thought of it, their gallingly cocky classmate’s forehead flush with anger, that vein in his disgustingly muscled neck starting to throb. Maybe George was right.
Maybe, someday, they would even miss the rats” (609).
lol awww XD
“Simon wondered whether, in the history of time, anyone had ever said, ‘I need to get some air,’ and actually meant it. Surely it was only ever used as code for “I need to be somewhere else.” Which Simon did. The problem was, nowhere felt like the right place to be—so, for lack of a better idea, he decided his dorm room would have to do. At least there he could be alone” (617).
“Sed lex, dura lex.
The Law is hard, but it is the Law.
Lex sucks, Simon thought” (620).
“And despite the fact that there was no one to appreciate his flawless Schwarzenegger accent, he swore his oath aloud: ‘I’ll be back’” (626).
“Simon wandered down Flatbush, soaking in the familiar noises of New York at night, sirens and construction drills and road-rage honking, along with the slightly less familiar sounds of glamoured faerie hounds barking at the pigeons. He crossed the Manhattan Bridge, metal rattling beneath his feet as the subway roared past, the lights of the Financial District glittering through the fog. Even before he’d known anything about demons and Downworlders, Simon thought, he had always known New York was full of magic. Maybe that was why it had been so easy for him to accept the truth about the Shadow World: In his city, anything was possible” (628).
Pictures of Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, USA! <3
“Being a Shadowhunter, he knew, meant being on an intimate basis with death. But then, so did being human” (653).
“One was a girl about his age; she had long blond hair, brown eyes, and the old-timey petticoats of a BBC duchess” (653).
Simon saw the ghosts of Jessamine and George Lovelace. My audiobook said that her eyes were blue, but I checked on the Shadowhunters Wiki Fandom website and it says that her eyes are brown.
“He understood now why he’d felt the need to come here, almost as if he’d been summoned. Not to say good-bye to George but to find a way to hold on to a piece of him.
‘I think I know what I want my Shadowhunter name to be,’ he said.
‘Simon Lovelace,’ Clary said, as always, knowing his mind as well as he did. ‘It has a certain ring to it.’
Isabelle’s lips quirked. ‘A sexy ring.’
Simon laughed and blinked away a tear. For one blurry-eyed moment, he thought he saw George grinning through the mist again, and then he was gone. George Lovelace was gone.
But Simon Lovelace was still here, and it was time to make that count” (654-655).
* It was mentioned that Mark Blackthorn speaks like a poem and I would have to totally agree! I thought that it was funny when Mark was saying his monologue and Simon was all like, “totally.” XD LOL
Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi
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